WATCH THE THANKS TO HER OFFICIAL TRAILER:

 

 

 

THANKS TO HER tells the story of Millie Blake, a high school soccer star who feels like she doesn't quite fit in with her popular friends. After trying to break up a fight with another student Andy Wellick, who is outspoken about her identity as a lesbian on the asexual spectrum, both girls land themselves with community service at a local nursing home. Initially, they butt heads, but the tension quickly blossoms into friendship as they learn more about each other. As time goes on and Millie’s friendship with Andy grows into something more, she finds herself trying to find the courage to finally show her true self to her friends and family. This coming of age, all-inclusive LGBTQ+ film focuses on the self, sexuality, and how that plays out in one's community.

 

 

 

April 2019: College senior Sam Orlowski wrote a script wanting to show characters in sapphic relationships the way she experienced them in her own life.

 

September 2020: a short film, “Thanks to Her” was made and uploaded to YouTube.

 

June 2022: That film has over 1.5 million views.

 

Somehow, this small film was able to overcome the algorithm and be seen and responded to by people of all age groups, identities, and backgrounds. 

 

 

Inspired by the many comments under the video, we decided to re-write and produce the film as a feature, with director Sam McCoy at the helm. The core creative team, Sam McCoy (Director/Producer), Hayley Ulmer (Producer), and Anh Vu (Director of Photography) remained the same, as well as the two leads cast as Millie and Andy (AJ Molder, Julia de Avilez Rocha).

 

During a month of funding on Kickstarter, we were able to raise $32,000 (after fees) to make the feature in its entirety. With such a small budget, the only way we were able to make the film was through the support and energy of the Pittsburgh community. Through donated locations, food, time, and equipment, we were able to hire and pay a woman/nonbinary-led crew made up of Pittsburgh film professionals and budding filmmakers.

 

The support we received from the local community during production was overwhelming, with the majority of it coming from people outside the industry. This experience reminded us that community-led productions are possible, especially when those involved can see themselves in the story. It has been a privilege to be able to finish the story, and we can’t wait to share it with the beautiful audience we have cultivated.

 

 Making a film is expensive. While we were able to stretch our initial funding through production and a large portion of post-production, more funding is necessary to help us  finish out the rest of post-production and take us through festival submissions and distribution. To achieve this, we are looking to raise an additional $10,000. 

 

Having this funding is critical for us to get THANKS TO HER out into the world. From the comments on the short on youtube, we witnessed how many people were impacted by seeing themselves represented on the screen. The funding will give us the ability to bring this film to as wide of an audience as possible, while keeping the quality of a film with a much larger budget. 

 

Just like with the initial kickstarter, even the smallest donation helps. If you are unable to donate, we encourage you to share this page and this trailer around - you never know who will connect with this story.

 

For ease of smaller donations, we have also set up a venmo account, listed here:

 

 

This account can accept donations under $600, but may not count towards tax-deductible status the way that donations on this page will.